Asphalt based shingles are the most common roofing material used in the United States on residential and commercial structures. These asphalt shingles are composed of a thin and flat base material made of either paper or fiberglass, which is saturated with asphalt. Granular material is embedded on the upper surface of the asphalt saturated base material. The durability of these shingles is ranked by the warranted life of the materials, and the life span of such shingles can range from 5 to 50 years.
There are a number of ways an asphalt shingle can be damaged, and most of these damaging activities will result in the loss of protection to the underlying structure. These causes of damage include normal ageing of the shingle, mechanical damage from foot traffic, manufacturing defects such as blistering, and storm damage resulting from high winds, heavy rain, or hail.
Hail and similar weather-related damage is estimated to cause more than one billion dollars in roof damage nationwide each year. The type of roofing materials affected the most by hail damage is asphalt-based roofing shingles with embedded granules. Such hail damage to asphalt shingles may include: (1) dislodging the granular material on the top surface of the asphalt base, (2) causing indentions in the asphalt, or (3) puncturing a hole or gash into the asphalt shingle.
For weather-related damage, dislodging of the granular material on the top surface of the asphalt shingle may sound innocuous, but the resulting damage caused by dislodging the granular material is significant. The granules embedded on the top surface of an asphalt shingle have a two-fold purpose. While the granules provide color for the aesthetic appearance of the roof, the granules are essential to providing the durability of the roofing shingle by providing weather resistance and protection from ultra-violet (UV) radiation.
If granules are removed from the top surface of an asphalt shingle, the shingle will be more vulnerable to subsequent weather damage and increased UV radiation. Over time, increased UV radiation and heat applied by the sun against the unprotected shingle will cause the exposed asphalt areas under the top surface of the asphalt shingle to dry and crack. A dry or cracked underlying asphalt shingle will likely lead to leak damage of the roof, and destruction of the roof sheathing residing under the shingles. Eventually, this type of damage will compromise the underlying housing structure.
When a portion of the roofing shingles on a roof become damaged (e.g. by high winds, hail damage, etc.), replacement of the entire roof is usually recommended. This is the normal recommendation even for relatively minor indentions if there is sufficient loss of granules over a pre-determined area of the roof. The pre-determined area to measure roof damage is a square area on the roof, usually a square of 10 ft. by 10 ft. (100 sq. ft.). That 100 foot area has approximately 8 shingles sized approximately 12 inches wide by 36 inches long. An entire roof replacement is recommended if there are 8-12 significant hail strikes or indentations located within any given 10 ft. by 10 ft. square on the roof.
Entire roof replacement for this type of weather-related damage is responsible for the majority of roof-related insurance payouts by homeowner insurance companies in the United States. One of the consequences of this type of roof replacement is that approximately 22 billion pounds of shingles are deposited in landfills each year, even though many or most of those shingles are in a good or undamaged condition. There is an existing need for a method and system that can avoid the replacement of an entire shingled roof when only a portion of roofing shingles on the roof are damaged.
Existing roof and shingle repair options are very limited and such existing options produce unsatisfactory results. For example, sealants, by themselves, provide a short term stop to further damage, but since most sealants do not repair the damage to the shingle adequately. And, sealants, when used alone, do not restore the damaged shingle to its original condition, either functionally or aesthetically. Use of sealants, by themselves, to repair a roof shingle is unsatisfactory because the shingle is not protected against future weather or UV damage. Insurance companies do not accept repairs using only sealants as an acceptable replacement insurable roof. As such, insurance companies will not re-insure a roof that is repaired with only sealants because such repairs do not produce a long-term, satisfactory repair.
There exists a need for a means to repair damaged shingles on an existing roof without having to replace the entire roof, and there is a need for a roof shingle repair method that produces a fully functional shingle or shingles even if the roof previously had hail strikes, wind damage or other weather-related damage. There is also a need to repair selected roofing shingles in an acceptable and fully functional manner, with such repair being qualified and approved by insurance carriers. There is an overall need for an economical means of fully restoring a damaged roof shingle without replacing an entire roof.